Bonan Novjaron MMXIII!

“The Gregorian calendar, also called the Western calendar and the Christian calendar, is internationally the most widely accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582; the decree, a papal bull, is known by its opening words, Inter gravissimas. The Gregorian calendar was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries.The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is presently almost 11 minutes shorter. The discrepancy results in a drift of about three days every 400 years. At the time of Gregory’s reform there had already been a drift of 10 days since Roman times, resulting in the spring equinox falling on 11 March instead of the ecclesiastically fixed date of 21 March, and moving steadily earlier in the Julian calendar. Because the spring equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter, the Roman Catholic Church considered this steady movement in the date of the equinox undesirable.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

but only DECEMBER 19, 2012

“The Julian calendar was the calendar in predominant use in most of Europe from 45 BC until it was superseded by the Gregorian calendar commencing in 1582, although it continued to be used as the civil calendar in some countries into the 20th century. The Gregorian calendar has now replaced the Julian calendar as the civil calendar in all countries which formerly used it. Most Christian denominations in the West and areas evangelized by Western churches have also replaced it with the Gregorian calendar as the basis for their liturgical calendars. However, most branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church still use the Julian calendar for calculating the dates of moveable feasts, including Easter (Pascha). Some Orthodox churches have adopted the Revised Julian calendar for the observance of fixed feasts, while other Orthodox churches retain the Julian calendar for all purposes. The Julian calendar is still used by the Berber people of North Africa, and on Mount Athos.It was a reform of the Roman calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC (708 AUC) to commence in 45 BC (709 AUC). The calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, as listed in Table of months. A leap day is added to February every four years. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long.The calendar year was intended to approximate the tropical (solar) year. Although Greek astronomers had known, at least since Hipparchus, that the tropical year was a few minutes shorter than 365.25 days, the calendar did not compensate for this difference. As a result, the calendar year gained about three days every four centuries compared to observed equinox times and the seasons. This discrepancy was corrected by the Gregorian reform, introduced in 1582.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar

loosely related to TEVETH 19, 5773

“The Hebrew calendar or Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today predominantly for Jewish religious observances. It determines the dates for Jewish holidays and the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits (dates to commemorate the death of a relative), and daily Psalm readings, among many ceremonial uses. In Israel, it is an official calendar for civil purposes and provides a time frame for agriculture. The current year of the Jewish calendar (16 September 2012 to 4 September 2013) is 5773.The Hebrew calendar has evolved over time. For example, until the Tannaitic period (approximately 10-220 CE) the months were set by observation of a new crescent moon, with an additional month added every two or three years to correct for the difference between twelve lunar months and the solar year, and therefore, to keep Passover in the spring. The addition of the extra month was also based on observation of natural events, namely the ripening of the barley crop, the age of the kids, lambs and doves, the ripeness of the fruit trees, and the relation to the Tekufah (seasons). Through the Amoraic period (200 to 500 CE) and into the Geonic period, this system was displaced by mathematical rules. The principles and rules appear to have been settled by the time Maimonides compiled the Mishneh Torah in the 12th century.Because of the roughly eleven-day difference between twelve lunar months and one solar year, the length of the Hebrew calendar year varies in the repeating 19-year Metonic cycle of 235 lunar months, with the intercalary month added according to defined rules every two or three years, for a total of 7 times per 19 years. Seasonal references in the Hebrew calendar reflect its development in the region east of the Mediterranean and the times and climate of the Northern Hemisphere. The Hebrew calendar year is longer by about 6 minutes and 25+25/27seconds than the present-day mean solar year, so that every 224 years, the Hebrew calendar will fall a full day behind the modern solar year, and about every 231 years it will fall a full day behind the Gregorian calendar year.The present counting method for years use the Anno Mundiepoch (Latin for ‘in the year of the world’, in Hebrew ‘from the creation of the world’), abbreviated AM or A.M. and also referred to as the Hebrew era. Hebrew year 5772 began at sunset on 28 September 2011 and ended on 16 September 2012. Hebrew year 5773 began at sunset on 16 September 2012 and will end on 4 September 2013.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar

“Hindu calendar is a collective name for most of the lunisolar calendars and solar calendars used in India since ancient times. Since ancient times it has undergone many changes in the process of regionalization and today there are several regional Indian Hindu calendars. It has also been standardized as Indian national calendar. Nepali calendar, Bengali calendar, Malayalam calendar, Tamil calendar, Telugu calendar, Kannada calendar etc. are some prominent regional Hindu calendars. The common feature of all regional Hindu calendars is that the names of the twelve months are the same (because the names are based in Sanskrit) though the spelling and pronunciation have come to vary slightly from region to region over thousands of years. The month which starts the year also varies from region to region.Most of the Hindu calendars are inherited from a system first enunciated in Vedanga Jyotisha‘s of Lagadha, a late BCE adjunct to the Vedas, standardized in the Surya Siddhanta (3rd century CE) and subsequently reformed by astronomers such as Aryabhata (499 CE), Varahamihira (6th c. CE), and Bhaskara II (12th c. CE). Differences and regional variations abound in these computations, but the following is a general overview of Hindu lunisolar calendar.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar